The Truth About Heroes
by Cheza the Flower Maiden
Summary: During a battle, a reforming Loki takes a hit for Tony and is badly injured. Now that Loki is the one in need of help, can Tony repay the favor? Is anything ever really that simple?
1. Prologue

Title: The Truth About Heroes

Author: Cheza

Rated: anywhere from Teen to Mature (I don't know how descriptive I'm gonna make the gory stuff until I get there)

Series: Avengers (movie-verse)

Summary: Based on prompt here: norsekink. livejournal 8802. html?thread =18623074&

_Loki saves Tony Stark from something (falling building perhaps?) that costs Loki a limb. Tony then builds a robotic limb to replace it. Friendship happens._

_Bonus: The amputation is forced on Loki and there is lots of pain and angst._

This first parts in Tony's POV. Enjoy!

Prologue

_It has been half a year since Thor dragged his snarky little brother back to earth. _

_Half a year since Thor had to explain to Fury why a former terrorist was moving about unrestrained while the rest of us had the immense pleasure of watching the man's face turn even darker. _

_Half a year since Thor begged me to put up with the man who threw me out a window to live in my house, eat my food, and attempt to, what was it Thor called it again? Oh yeah! And I quote, "until he has redeemed himself in the eyes of your people and has aided the Avengers in doing good." _

_Right. Most of us avoided him like the plague, at least when he wasn't avoiding us first. _

_During missions we always ordered him back, said we needed him covering an out of the way exit but, really, we just didn't want to deal with him. _

_He caught on quickly enough, unlike Thor. _

_He wasn't even particularly upset when we accidentally forgot, and left him there. _

_And yet… despite all our bull, despite the horse jokes and treating him like utter crap, he was still there for us, for me especially, when we needed him most. And he paid for it. Big time._

Chapter 1 up soon! Review please._  
_


	2. Chapter 1

Title: The Truth About Heroes

Author: Cheza

Rated: anywhere from Teen to Mature (I don't know how descriptive I'm gonna make the gory stuff until I get there)

Series: Avengers

Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Family

Summary: Based on prompt here: norsekink. livejournal 8802. html?thread =18623074&

_Loki saves Tony Stark from something (falling building perhaps?) that costs Loki a limb. Tony then builds a robotic limb to replace it. Friendship happens._

_Bonus: The amputation is forced on Loki and there is lots of pain and angst._

__Again, this is mostly from Tony's POV.

Chapter 1

The avengers collectively groaned as their movie marathon was interrupted for the third time that week, all except Natasha who simply blinked and Loki who had only just walked in at the sound of Fury calling them to assemble. Each member gathered their gear before heading to what had become the unofficial quick conference room. Fury only had to show them live footage from the street for them to understand their assignment. They quickly left the tower, Tony and Thor flying, Hulk leaping, Loki teleporting, and Steve, Natasha and Clint taking a repaired quinjet to the scene.

Upon arriving, all took a moment to stare at the giant pink monstrosity that was systematically attempting to eat the city. Thor was the first to the fight, shouting a war cry before charging in. The Hulk was the second, bellowing his rage as he began to quite literally tear it a new one. Stark dropped Hawkeye and Black Widow on a roof and flew off to blast the beast's eyes with energy pulsars, but not before noting to his teammates the strange and slightly humorous similarity in looks to an ever hungry FullMetal Alchemist antagonist.

"Shut up, Tony," growled an irritated Captain America. "Concentrate on the fight."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't burst a blood-vessel, old-timer," came the billionaire's reply. Aiming for the eyes, Tony sent off a blast and cursed when all it seemed to accomplish was making it angry. Fleshy pink tentacle-like appendages lashed out, attempting to hit Iron Man. Tony dodged, whooping loudly as a few missed by several meters and was just about to taunt it when-

"GET DOWN!"

Startled, Tony only briefly saw a green whip of light wrap around his ankle before it yanked him sideways. His eyes widened behind his face plate as a pink tentacle brushed by his head, aimed for where he had been mere moments before. Looking back, he noticed Loki for the first time since the start of the fight, attempting to sever the wavy appendages with magic. Just as he was turning to rejoin the fight he heard a sarcastic, if not slightly put out, "You're welcome."

Fighting the urge to flip the sorcerer the bird, he dived once more into the chaos of the fight, weaving through the air and taunting the beast with words and pulsar blasts to keep its attention. Looking back toward the ground, he could not help the laugh that escaped him at the sight of pure frustration on his former enemy's face as he abandoned the slicing green waves of power and began to freeze the flailing pink weapons. Thor, catching on to his brother's game plan, began smashing the frozen bits into shiny pink and red pieces and smiling widely when the pieces stayed smashed. Looking back and up, his screen zoomed in to show both Natasha and Clint sniping from afar, taking shots at the monstrosity's eyes in hopes of throwing off its aim. But aside from the broken, frozen bits, it seemed to keep regenerating.

"This isn't working," shouted Steve, the sound of a building worry clear in his voice as he used his shield to block a sweeping claw.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious. Now what do we do about it," Tony replied, sarcasm coloring his tone. He swore quietly under his breath before ordering Jarvis to put more power in his thrusters while attempting to evade yet more thrashing limbs as they attempted to trap and crush him. Tony laughed triumphantly only to be abruptly cut off by one limb he hadn't saw.

He crashed to the ground, the armor groaning in protest as his assailant crashed right on top of him. Later, he would wonder if the shout he had heard had simply been his imagination or not, but nothing would prepare him for the giant lumbering thing as it lifted its leg preparing to step on him, much like one would a bug, and the world blurred before him once more. His disorientation was broken by the realization that he was moving- no, not moving, _rolling!_- and the monster was not on top of him anymore. This realization was only punctuated by Thor horrified shout of _"Brother!"_

Tony twisted himself onto his stomach and pushed himself onto his hands and knees; taking off his now dark and malfunctioning helmet, only to let it drop from limp fingers as his eyes took in a sight that his mind refused to process.

He felt a numbness he had only felt once before as his eyes took in the trickster, their once hated enemy, beneath the monster's clawed front paw pressing him into the concrete. He heard a crack, but couldn't be sure if it was the trickster's ribs, or the concrete breaking beneath the saw Thor desperately tug at the creature's jaws in hopes of making it release the blood-soaked arm between its teeth all the while hitting its forehead with Mjolnir. Through his shock, he heard Loki's desperate, pained sobs of "stopstop_stopstopstopstop!" _interspersed by pained gasps as the thing moved. The world seemed to tunnel around him as he tried to get up. The world came back to him in a rush as another crack sounded –definitely Loki's ribs this time- and the pained sounds turned to wet sounding coughs.

Stark began to run, his blood pumping in his ears, heading straight for the two demi-gods. As he got closer, he could see green sparks jumping around the trapped deity's captured arm. He was almost there –almost there!- when Thor slammed his hammer into the beasts head one last time. As though in slow motion, Tony saw its head jerk back, Loki's arm still between clenched teeth. With a crack, a spray of blood, and a scream of pain, the monster stumbled back, Loki's arm still in its mouth. As much as he wished he could look away, as much as he wished he could forget, no amount of brain-bleach would erase the image of that thing swallowing the severed arm. The trance was broken by Cap's shout followed by Thor's roar of rage.

"Huh," Tony said elegantly. Steve sighed in exasperation.

"Help me get him out of here," Steve said again, pressing Thor's cape –wait, when did he get Hammer Time's cape?- to Loki bleeding shoulder… or what was left of it anyway. "I'll get his shoulders; you get his legs, ok?" Steve arranged the cape so as to put more pressure on the still bleeding wound.

Tony nodded dumbly, bending down to pick up surprisingly heavy booted feet, and together, he and Steve lifted their blood-soaked cargo. Loki hissed in pain, flinching in their arms. Cap apologized while begging Loki to keep his eyes open, to focus, to say _something_. Their awkward walk slowly but surely brought them to the relative safety of shelter. Putting him down gently, Steve tried to get Loki's attention only to stare when he smirked. Following his line of sight, they gaped in awe as they watched their enemy roll in pain, its screams filling the air as its skin appeared to rot off of it, soon followed by its tentacles and legs.

"Got… 'im."

Tony heard the breathy whisper and turned back to stare in wonder at the being that had almost single-handedly saved them, saved him. Loki's smirk quickly turned into a grimace of pain as he seemed to choke on air.

"Loki!" The rest seemed to fade away before Tony's eyes as he watched pain-dulled green eyes slide closed.

-*o*-*o*-*o*-

_ The Truth about heroes is there are three kinds: the people who are just too perfect, the self-righteous ass-hole out for glory and free reign to bully the other side, and then there are the ones who used to be villains, the ones who know they have done wrong and want to change, to make amends._

_ Every one of the Avengers would classify themselves as number three. But the truth is, these past six months, we were the self-righteous ass-holes, forgetting we were once in Loki's place. We got lucky. We were given second chances. In some cases, even a third and a fourth. Given some of his titles and his status as "adopted" in world of Aryan Vikings, I now have to wonder if he was even given a first chance. Which is funny, considering that most of us have a kill count to match if not outmatch Loki's attempt at world domination._

_ Loki saved my life, all of our lives, even after we gave him every reason to sit back and watch us fail. And for that, he is now one of us, the rest of their opinions be damned. Or maybe I'll join him in the anti-hero circle. Maybe then I won't feel like the rich kid bully picking on the kid with anti-depressants._

__I'm terribly sorry if the fight scene was bad. I've not had much practice at it. Please review and tell me what you think. I need the tips people. That way I can improve.


	3. Chapter 2

Title: The Truth About Heroes

Author: Cheza

Rated: anywhere from Teen to Mature (I don't know how descriptive I'm gonna make the gory stuff until I get there)

Series: Avengers

Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Family

Summary: Based on prompt here: norsekink. livejournal 8802. html?thread = 18623074&

_Loki saves Tony Stark from something (falling building perhaps?) that costs Loki a limb. Tony then builds a robotic limb to replace it. Friendship happens._

_Bonus: The amputation is forced on Loki and there is lots of pain and angst._

__Author's Note: Sorry it's taking so long to get these up but college has started again and I have a 17 hours worth of classes (2 are online).

Thank you to the reviewers, I probably would not have even finished this chapter with your praise and your very helpful tips and ideas. I appreciate every single one.

roguexmagneto

Jester's Pet Oriole

GuesssWho

ObeyTheFluff

LaPirataAna

Power of Funk

Guest

skydancer2ooo

EvilConcubine

sylena

**Now, onto the story!**

Chapter 2

This was never supposed to happen. That's what Fury tells us after the conscious members of our group assembled in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s conference room. This was never supposed to happen, and the only reason it did is because some security guard got lazy. After the fight was over and Loki was taken to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s on base hospital (and Thor was forced to leave his side), our "glorious commander" began by telling us that they had backtracked and found the place that thing came from. What they found left us feeling ill.

Apparently, this came from a small branch lab belonging to Osborn's company. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents found an injured, twenty-something-year- old and when they tried to take him in to get his wounds treated; he started shouting about how he "stuck it to the man" and all but admitting to what he did. The reports state that he had snuck past a sleeping guard to sabotage the lab. Instead of just pouring the chemicals down the drain like a good little anarchist, he began to mix them like only someone who's never even taken a high school chemistry class could. It wasn't just acids he was mixing; it was radio-active DNA. Specifically, the already modified DNA of an earth worm and an octopus. Well, that certainly explains the color, multiple limbs, and regeneration. The thing is, it also had human DNA belonging to a scientist who was just unlucky enough to walk in on this creep.

We stood by as he was taken into a high security holding area, not one of us feeling any pity for him, especially not Bruce. Both he and Thor had to be escorted out before they decided that bashing this guy's head in was worth punishment by S.H.I.E.L.D.. After that we peeled off from the group one by one, all headed to the same place. The medical ward looked and smelled like all others, with its too bright lights and the ever present smell of disinfectant. I arrived to the sight of Thor sitting dejectedly at his unconscious brother's side, holding Loki's remaining hand between his own. Bruce was alternating between talking to the lead doctor and translating for Thor, who seemed to only be half-listening.

Mustering up what little resolve I had left after such a tiring day, I finally took a good look at Loki. He looked awful, to put it bluntly. He, thankfully, seemed to be breathing well enough on his own. His upper-torso was bare of everything except a blanket and a thick wrapping of bandages that wound around his trunk to hold his ribs in place and to keep his shoulder from bleeding everywhere or becoming infected.

Only just noticing the doctor had left, I turned to Bruce.

"Care to summarize?"

With a sigh, he nodded, eyes never leaving the brothers. "When they first brought him in, he couldn't breathe because three of his ribs had pierced his lungs. They rushed him into surgery but, after they reset the bones, his lungs had already started healing themselves. A perk of being a magic user, I guess. It's the same with most of his other injuries. The only one that still needs to be watched closely is his shoulder. It seems that poor doctor didn't just take his arm; it ripped it right out of its socket. The surrounding muscle, bone, and ligaments took quite a bit of damage. Between that and the punctured lung, he lost a lot of blood."

"Wait, I thought you said his magic is healing him."

"It is, mostly. The damage to his shoulder is going to take time, even with magic. Even then, he'll have to learn to cope with one hand."

For some reason, I couldn't help but feel guilty for exactly that. The mental image of Loki attempting move about and fight with only one arm certainly didn't help. Then it hit me.

"Maybe. Maybe not."

Bruce and Thor both looked at me, one with wary curiosity and the other with hope.

"What do you mean," Bruce asked, the caution in his tone enough to concern Thor (if facial expression is anything to go by).

"Did you know the Iron Man suit is listed as a prosthetic and not a weapon," I asked instead of answering. I couldn't help my grin as the implications sank in, Thor returning it with one of his own. Bruce, however, did not seem to share our excitement.

"Please tell me you aren't serious," the scientist asked in exasperation.

"Hey! What's wrong with my plan," I asked playfully, though no less honestly. As one of the few others in our group to understand the advanced sciences, I truly respect his opinion even if I don't always follow his advice.

"For one, your armor IS a highly destructive weapon, no matter how it is classified. Two, there's no guarantee that he'll agree to this so making plans before he even wakes up is somewhat pointless. And finally, even if you could make him a working arm, do you honestly believe for a second that Fury will let you simply make only one to give to an ex-criminal?"

I made sure to smirk for their benefit, but could not help the internal wince. He was right; Fury would not only attempt to confiscate the arm but have it disassembled so that his super-spy techies would be able to build more. Well, there were ways around that sort of thing.

"I can make one without built in weapons; it would be kind of lame but I can do it. I don't know why Loki would refuse the chance to have such an awesome arm, but I guess that is a possibility. And as for Fury, I can make it so that if he tries to take it, it will bug out on him. Essentially, it would only work while attached to Loki."

"And how do you propose that," Bruce asked, curiosity mixing with exasperation in his tone.

"Good question," I replied. "What I think I'll try to do is connect sensors in the arm directly to his nervous system through a port installed in his shoulder…" I could not help but look over at Thor as movement caught my eye, and had to stifle a laugh at the sight of Hammer Time looking back and forth between Bruce and myself; almost like a dog following a Ping-Pong match.

"And how are you going to keep Fury from taking it and using it," Bruce prompted, intent on ignoring Thor's confused attempt at listening in.

"Oh, eh. As I was saying, Loki isn't human and he isn't… like Thor. What did you call him," I asked Sparky, ignoring his scowl at the reminder that, no, he and Loki aren't blood-related.

"He is technically a Jotun-"

"Jotun, right," I continued on, thankful that Thor was too busy clutching at his brother's hand to consider coming after me. "The thing is, he is the only one of his kind on earth. Even if Fury gets ahold of the arm, if it's built to work exclusively with Loki's biology, then he wouldn't be able to do anything with it. We already know his core temp runs several degrees below that of a normal human when he's wearing a human form and a lot colder when not. We also know he has the metabolism of a shrew and that's partially why he's small for his kind. There are a lot of things that this arm would need to function that simply wouldn't work with a human user and that's only considering what little we actually know about how his body works." By this time, I had gone from calm explanation to excited gestures in a hopeless attempt to convey the possibilities appearing right before my eyes.

"So, in other words, you want to make an arm that is so Loki-friendly that it would be impossible for anyone else to use it. Do you have any idea how difficult, if not impossible, such a task would be?" As skeptical and irritated as he sounded, Bruce could not not smile at my enthusiasm and nearly choked with laughter at my response.

"Challenge accepted."


End file.
